Servicing

House Democrats are pushing back on the Federal Housing Finance Agency's move to block the city of Chicago from enforcing an ordinance that requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to register their foreclosed properties with the city.

Daniel Mudd, the former Fannie Mae CEO who is the subject of a new, massive SEC fraud suit, announced Wednesday morning that he is taking a leave of absence from his current employer, Fortress Investment Group, New York.

House Republicans Tuesday afternoon killed a Senate-passed compromise on a short-term extension of the payroll tax cut that is funded, in part, by hiking the guarantee fees charged to seller/servicers by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mortgage stocks on Tuesday posted gains as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose almost 300 points, and the yield on the rate-indicative 10-year Treasury rebounded.

Veterans are refinancing at a healthy clip these days as 2011 ends and loan limits on Department of Veterans Affairs guaranteed mortgages are slated to adjust downward in many counties across the nation.

It's that time of the year again: one in which financial services columnists wax poetic and ponder the Bailey Building and Loan and how if it existed today (it doesn't really) regulators would sue George Bailey (and Uncle Billy and 'Old Man' Potter since he sat on the board) for fraud to go after the D&O insurance.

Vertical Capital Markets Group, Irvine, Calif., this week launched a new fund that invests primarily in assets of residential performing loans secured by first mortgages or deeds of trust.

Home Savings of America in Little Falls, Minn., has scuttled - for now - its merger with Cornerstone Mortgage after one of the bank's private equity investors backed out of the deal, according to a memo provided to National Mortgage News.

American Home Mortgage Servicing, a company controlled by investor Wilbur Ross, recently explored buying the wholesale division of MetLife Home Loans, but for now has put the idea on hold, according to industry advisors familiar with the matter.

It looks like Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller won't be getting his Christmas wish this year. Miller, who is leading the settlement talks with the top five mortgage servicers, said earlier this month that the settlement should be reached by the holiday.